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In July 2019 Finest Bay Area Development signed an MOU with a consortium of three Chinese companies, China Railway International Group, China Railway Engineering Company, and China Communications Construction Company, with financial backing of Touchstone Capital Partners, to build an undersea train tunnel between Helsinki, Finland and Tallinn, Estonia. This project has faced delays due to a number of factors, including a vote by the Helsinki-Uusimaa Regional Council’s Assembly to adjust the route of the project, which would make the cost estimates much higher than originally estimated. Private investors say that nevertheless planning is still ongoing. Opening up this route would connect Finland to standard-gauge Rail-Baltica Project connecting three Baltic states with Poland and the Western Europe standard-gauge network.
Artificial Intelligence
The Government of FInland has taken a proactive role in nurturing artificial intelligence (AI) development in Finland, and aims to make the country a leading economy in artificial intelligence and platform economy development and utilization. To support this goal, a four-year (2018-2022) $226 million program “AI Business” was developed to fund Finnish start-up, SME, mid-cap, and large companies in all fields developing and utilizing AI and platforms in business including mobility services. The program offers international networks and export services, such as matching selected companies with large global firms.
Testbeds
Finnish legislation allows the type of development and trial projects currently being carried out in Europe and the United States to be implemented on Finnish public roads. This has led to the creation of several testbed ecosystems around Finland, which are available for both domestic and international companies piloting smart mobility solutions. Some bigger cities offer free data for companies to use in these testbeds, such as the City of Tampere through its Data.Tampere.fi-portal and the capital region with the cities of Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa and Kauniainen with the Helsinki Region Infoshare portal.
Finland has been a testbed between 2015 and 2019 for multiple self-driving car projects, including an EU funded minibus shuttle service project in 2018 in Helsinki. The project has since expanded to multiple other projects, including piloting the same shuttle service in the Baltics, and initiating new tests in Helsinki.
For More Information about exporting to Japan contact:
Atsuko Shimada
Commercial Specialist
U.S. Embassy Tokyo, Japan
Atsuko.Shimada@trade.gov
+81-33224-5075
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Automotive Opportunities
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Traditionally, the Artificial Intelligence (AI) industry in Japan has been focused on hardware and manufacturing, with a particular interest in robotics and industrial automation. As a result, Japan has fallen behind the U.S. on AI innovation and development, specifically in Software and deep learning. However, over the past few years, the Japanese Government has implemented supportive policies and initiatives to invest in AI innovation. Japan would like to examine how the development of AI, big data, and IoT impacts the industrial and labor market structure, and to use that information to develop a shared public-private vision of the future proactively.
Currently, tremendous needs for AI and its areas are Business Intelligence, IoT, healthcare, finance, and autonomous driving-related technologies.
Robotics / Machine Intelligence Opportunities